Sloppy sloppy seconds ! Yuk. Sited pins play like a bowl of custard !

[GORGAR 1]

I know on those Stern games you can ajust the flipper/pops and sling coil power I wonder if the operator turned them all down? Who knows but something isn't right. Again cheers for all the story's above what an awesome read :)

[Retropin]

I know on those Stern games you can ajust the flipper/pops and sling coil power I wonder if the operator turned them all down? Who knows but something isn't right. Again cheers for all the story's above what an awesome read :)

This had crossed my mind but wasn't sure if Stern had this as well as JJP... did a Google search but found nothing

[Freiherr]

I know on those Stern games you can ajust the flipper/pops and sling coil power I wonder if the operator turned them all down? Who knows but something isn't right. Again cheers for all the story's above what an awesome read :)

This had crossed my mind but wasn't sure if Stern had this as well as JJP... did a Google search but found nothing

A check of AC/DC manual for coil pulse (no pun intended):
Under Standard Adjustments #43 COIL PULSE POWER:
“Set to NORMAL, HARD or SOFT. Factory Default = NORMAL. When set to HARD, the coil pulse power is increased by 12.5% to the normal pulse rate. When set to SOFT the coil pulse is decreased by 12.5% of the normal pulse rate. This adjustment is provided to compensate for Low Line or High Line voltage conditions where the solenoids (coils) appear to be kicking too weak or too hard. Adjust as required.”

[Caveoftreasures]

Great read Nino.

It sounds like the pops and the flippers are turned down at Surfers TimeZone, then add in overheating and massively over used machines that require the pops and the flippers rebuilt and u have a batch of games that feel like the pops are down on power by 75 percent and the flippers are down to 50 percent.

I reckon everything on the game is hot from being on 16 plus hrs a day plus it's then played constantly for hours n hours on end and u get machines that play terribly. Personally, I reckon there has to be design faults and the games are now designed for low home use only playing. If it was designed for onsite flogging, it would stand up to a beating and not be so sloppy after only 3 months.
Don't get me wrong, any machine at TimeZone Surfers gets absolutely tortured, but they shld be designed to be flogged without suffering. We are only talking about beefing up the pops and the flippers. Two areas only that make or break how a game plays if the game plays sloppy.

My late 1998 and 1999 various Sega DMD pinnys I have being X Files, Star Wars Trilogy, Viper Night Drivin, Lost World JPark, Spacejam etc, have "SuperPops" which seem twice as powerful as the current Stern games, and the flipper systems seem twice as snappy and stronger. I collected all the concave Segas because they seemed very rugged.
Admittedly, if u play a Data East game or a Bally Williams game being a DMD with totally rebuilt flippers, the noise of the flippers is twice as noisy as the new Sterns, so maybe the current design of the new pinnys is designed to cut down a lot of noise ? Maybe the cost of noise reduction is a flipper system that is a bit or a lot weaker ?

Does anyone else notice how loud the flippers are on the 90,s DMD machines from all the manufacturers compared to the new Sterns.? I prefer quieter flippers and for HUO the Sterns are wonderful, but onsite and played to buggery and when hot, they are showing that the new stuff in the pops and flipper areas are not as robust.
Maybe the new coils and the new Spike System will improve the longevity of flipper rebuilds and Pop bumper area rebuilds for sited machines ??

[Brunswick Brawler]

I would guess that Stern may have returned to conventional twin coils to minimise Electro Magnetic Interference that the pulsed single coils would have caused.  The single coil interference may have created issues with the new spike system.